


robbing the nest

by 49percentchanceofbees



Series: Telvura Crew [1]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Original Character-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-07
Updated: 2017-11-07
Packaged: 2019-02-07 00:08:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12829086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/49percentchanceofbees/pseuds/49percentchanceofbees
Summary: The crew of the Telvuraenters a strange drifting ship on a salvage mission.





	robbing the nest

**Author's Note:**

> [read on tumblr](https://telvuracrew.tumblr.com/post/167235098765/read-on-deviantart-the-corridors-of-the-strange) / [read on deviantart](https://argetl.deviantart.com/art/robbing-the-nest-Mass-Effect-OC-fic-713891580)

The corridors of the strange ship were low and twisted in odd ways and generally gave off the impression that no known race should be here, that they were not made for any being with only two legs, that entering was about as wise as walking into an Ardat-Yakshi’s sex dungeon. But the crew of the _Telvura_ had never been much for common sense, so there they were, walking crouched through the tunnels in an extremely ill-advised salvage mission.

Indrala led the way. She was not, in fact, thrilled about this idea, and had complained the whole way, until Kaxel said she could go back to the ship if she was _scared_. While Indrala pointed out, at length, how transparent a manipulation tactic this was, she no longer suggested going back.

Ria followed, pistol drawn, biotics ready, more and more disconcerted by the sociocultural implications of this ship design. She in fact thought she recognized the profile, but she hadn’t mentioned this to the others. It didn’t matter, anyway, unless she was _right_.

Lith came third, fully absorbed in her omni-tool and its attempts to analyze the technology surrounding them, which was utterly foreign -- _alien_ in a way that had almost lost its meaning. Bringing up the rear was Kaxel, monitoring the space behind them without turning her head: one of the advantages of navigating via ultrasound, echolocation, thermal sensors, and the other technology that substituted for her long-blinded eyes.

“Looks like it opens up ahead,” Indra said, pointing to indicate that she’d go right and Ria should cover the left side of the room.

“Got it.”

They moved forward, splitting off to different sides of the entryway as planned, while Kaxel and Lith hung back, Kaxel exploring the room with her own sensors and Lith … well, she was _supposed_ to be scanning, but she might have gotten a bit distracted by the designs of the power conduits under the floor.

The precautions proved unnecessary. The room was still, devoid of life. When certain of this, Ria lowered her pistol and looked at the fixture in the center of the room, clearly the focus of the entire chamber.

“Clear,” Indra said, informing Kax and Lith that they could enter. As they did, she continued, “Ri, I don’t like this.”

“You’re not wrong,” Ria said, her attention absorbed by the smooth, curved surface in front of her. She’d leaned perilously close to it.

In the center of the room sat around a dozen large eggs, arranged in a very specific and yet entirely meaningless pattern and girded in technology.

“I think it’s some kind of cryo,” Lith said, still looking at her omni-tool and not the eggs.

“I think it’s probably some kind of deep space demon that’s going to spring to life and rip our faces off,” Indra offered.

“We’re not _in_ deep space,” Kax said. “Besides, since when are you -- ”

“OK, better picture,” Indra interrupted, almost shouting to speak over Kaxel. “It’s going to rip _your_ faces off, and I’m going to have to fight my way out in a fucking shower of blood and guts, very badassly, and then I’ll go back to the ship and be extremely sad about Lith and Ria and a little disappointed that I didn’t get to kick your ass myself.”

“Don’t yell,” Kaxel said. “You might wake the space demons.”

While this scintillating banter continued, Ria had moved away from the eggs and begun to examine the walls and a certain protuberance that could almost have been called a console.

“I think I’m getting some signs of life,” Lith said. “It’s really hard to be sure, between differing alien physiologies and the weird tech. I mean, I definitely _can’t_ say that there _aren’t_ life signs.”

“I think they’re rachni,” Ria said.

This sentence dropped into an uncharacteristic silence and lengthened it considerably.

“And I didn’t even bring my flamethrower,” Indra said at last.

“I did a term paper on rachni, and what deductions we could make about their society from the remaining evidence … I recognize the ship profile.” Ria went back to the eggs.

Kaxel walked over, rifle holstered, hands folded primly behind her back as she leaned over the capsules. “Just think how much one of these babies must be worth.”

“Oh no,” Indra said, joining the asari and drell in the center of the room. “We are _not_ doing this shit. You _want_ rachni crawling up your ass?”

“Maybe I do -- don’t kinkshame me.”

Ria straightened. “First of all, Kaxel, ew. Second, we don’t even know if these eggs are viable. In fact, we may want to make sure they aren’t before they pass from our hands. But, while they may not be _viable_ , they are extremely _valuable_ … not to mention an incredible scientific and societal opportunity the likes of which we may never see again.”

“Oh, yay.” There was, of course, absolutely no enthusiasm in Indra’s voice. “The resurgence of the rachni. They’re definitely good friends who we want back in the galaxy.”

“Well, we do want to keep ourselves in protein packs and thermal clips,” Ria said. “We can work out the rest later.”

And she pulled one of the eggs gently from its nest.

A grating tone sounded that was _definitely_ an alarm and a smoking, viscous substance began to ooze from the walls.

“Oh, fuck,” Indra said.

“Of course,” Ria muttered. She turned back to the eggs to find that a cover made from some unidentifiable fibrous substance had snapped shut over the rest of them. “Well, I think we’ve overstayed our welcome.”

“Also, this is acid,” said Lith, looking at the slime’s chemical composition on her omni-tool.

“Carry this,” Ria said, dumping the egg she held into Kaxel’s arms.

“This is so all the turrets or whatever target me, isn’t it?”

Ignoring Kaxel, Ria reached out, the blue glow of biotics forming around her body -- and then snapping outward, across the space between the women and the corridor, shoving aside the acid. A human might have referred to Moses parting the sea, but none of the _Telvura’s_ crew knew the first thing about human religion, so the comparison did not occur to them.

“Let’s go.” Indrala grabbed Lith’s hand and half-dragged her down the path thus created, shotgun ready in her other hand.

“You know, maybe _I_ need some help carrying this extremely valuable, probably fragile -- oh, fuck it.” Kaxel dashed after them. Ria followed, more slowly, the path closing behind her.

The corridor was not full of acid, but the floor heaved and contorted, as if the ship were a living being very upset at being robbed but not entirely sure what to do about it. Lith stumbled, and Indra hoisted the quarian onto her back, almost without pausing. Kaxel struggled to keep her balance and protect the egg until Ria caught up to her and lent not only a hand but her biotic powers.

In a scene that a human might have likened to Indiana Jones but that, of course, these individuals had their own cultural references for, the four escaped the ship and tumbled, in some disarray, onto their own vessel. The _Telvura_ quickly swooped away from the rachni ship, which was _vibrating_ in a very worrying way, and that was, of course, the end of the matter.

(No. It wasn’t.) 

**Author's Note:**

> [Now, what could have possibly happened to that egg ...](https://weevilrockyou.tumblr.com/)


End file.
